Locking device for slicing machine clamps



y 1936. GA. LENSKY ET AL 2,042,230-

LOCKING DEVICE FOR SLICING MACHINE CLAMPS Filed March 25, 1934 INVENTORS. 650/?65 A. LEA/s01 BY 5 L M5 6: 6' TPECKFUSS- ATTORNEYS.

Patented May 26, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE George A. Lensky and Elmer G. Streckfuss, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to The Cincinnati Time Recorder Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application March 23,

16 Claims.

Our invention relates to slicing machines, such as are used for slicing meat and the like; and more especially to the clamps for such machines, provided for holding the meat or other material in the carriage that carries the meat or other material to the slicing element.

An object of our invention is to provide for very rapidly locking the clamp in engagement with the material which is held, to very firmly hold the material at any position to which it may be adjusted, according to the size of the piece of material being held.

Heretofore, the usual practice has been to provide clamps of this character with a ratchet device or some similar device of a positive nature, which involves more complication in structure, less reliability in operation, and less nicety of adjustment to a piece of material of given size. By our invention, we attain an infinite number of adjustments within the range of adjustment of the clamp, and rigidly hold the clamp at any one of these adjustments, so that it can not yield away from the piece of material and allow the material to become loose on the carriage, which is not only a cause of inaccurate and unsightly slicing of the material, but often dangerous to the operator as well.

The clamp in conjunction with which we prefer to illustrate our invention is fully disclosed and claimed in the copending application of Elmer G. Streckfuss, one of the applicants herein, filed January 15, 1934, Serial No. 706,677; but it will be understood that we are not limited to the particular application of our invention to this clamp, as, my modification not departing from the scope and spirit of our invention, it can readily be applied to clamps of other constructions.

The objects above mentioned, as well as other objects which will appear in the following description, we attain by the device illustrated, for example, in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of part of a slicing machine, including a material carriage and clamp, the latter constructed as set forth in the copend-' ing application above mentioned, and having our improved locking device applied thereto.

Figure 2 is an enlargement of a part of the front elevation of Fig. 1, illustrating our improved locking device in more detail.

Figure 3 is a front-to-rear section on the plane of the line 33 of Fig. 2.

The slicing machine to which our invention is applied is, as best shown in Fig. 1, made up of a base I supporting the rotatable cutting disc 2 1934, Serial No. 717,062

and, for adjustment at various distances from the plane of the cutting edge 2 of the disc, the slice gauge plate i. The means for support of these parts are not shown, but as machines of this type are known in the art, it is unnecessary, for the 5 purpose of the present disclosure, to show or describe them.

Suitable track means 5 is mounted on the front of the base I, on which track means slides the carriage 6, which, as here shown, is a trough shaped device with the length of the trough at right angles to the direction of travel of the carriage along the track means 5. This trough has a bottom 1 inclining at a moderate angle to the horizontal down in the direction in which the carriage is fed for slicing, and has at its front the side 8 upstanding from the bottom I at right angles thereto, that is, the front side 8 inclines over in the direction of cutting travel of the carriage.

The material holder 9 comprises a bottom part Ill parallel with the bottom part I of the trough, and a rear part II upstanding at right angles to the bottom part It and presented toward the slice gauge plate 4, and, when the carriage is advanced for cutting, toward the cutting disc 2. The broad bottom part I0 is for bearing down on the top of a piece of material to hold it down in the trough; and it has teeth I2 on its bottom for entering the material to maintain positive engagement therewith. The upstanding rear part I I is for engaging the last thin pieces of material from which slices are to be taken and it has teeth l2a, seen in Fig. 3, on its rear side.

The material holder 9 is mounted, according to the invention in the copending application before mentioned, on two arms l3 and M. The rear arm l3 has one end pivoted at Hi to the bracket Ila which is fixed to the upstanding rear part II of the holder 9 a distance above the pivotal connection E5 of the corresponding end of the front arm 14 to this part II. On the end of the carriage that is advanced in the cutting travel, is a transverse track I1, and a bracket or pedestal Ila extends up from and travels on this track to feed the material to the cutter 2 under control of the gauge plate 4. The opposite ends of the arms [3 and M are pivoted, at l8 and I9, respectively to this bracket or pedestal Ila. The distance between the pivots l5 and I6 at the first mentioned ends is equal to the distance between the pivots l8 and I9; and the lines along which the two pairs of pivots are alined are parallel; being inclined to be at right angles to the bottom of the holder 55 9 and the bottom of the trough of the carriage. The result is that the holder 9 may be swung upward any distance from the carriage trough, within a range the upper limit of which is represented by the dotted lines indicating these parts in Fig. 1, and at all elevations maintain the bottom part I of the carriage trough for uniform engagement of pieces of meat or the like of all sizes within the permitted range. An adjustable screw stop limits the downward swinging of the parts, so that the holder 9 may be limited in its approach to the trough bottom I to any degree desired.

In the preferred embodiment, as shown in the mentioned copending application, the front arm I4 is upwardly arched and shaped as a handle; and also it inclines forward from its pivot I5 at the holder 9 to its pivot I9 at the pedestal or bracket II. This makes it especially convenient to grasp the device for raising and lowering the holder 9. It is with the pivots I 5 and I6 that our present invention is associated. It will be understood, however, that we are not limited to this particular association, but that, with modi fications within the scope and spirit of our invention, it may be associated with the other pair of pivotal connections I8 and I9 at the pedestal or bracket II.

The pivot I5, as well as the pivot I6 thereabove is, held in a bracket member IIa, rigidly secured to the rear upstanding part II of the holder 9. This pivot I5, as here shown, is in the form of a bolt extending through an aperture in the bracket member II a as seen in Fig. 3, with a fiat convex head 2I at the rear side of the bracket member I I a and having, inside the aperture of the bracket member, a part 22 of reduced diameter engaged by a set screw 23 threaded through a side of the hub of the bracket member I Ia to clamp the pivot against turning in the bracket member. This bolt-like pivot I5 extends most of the way through the hub of the arm I4, and has an axial tapped hole extending back from its front end.

Lying between the hub of the arm I4 and the hub of the bracket member IIa, is one end part of the locking segment 24 which has an are shaped slot 25 concentric with an opening in the upper part of this segment 24 by which the segment embraces the other pivot I6 that connects the rear arm I3 to the bracket member I la. The

opposite end of the segment 24 is fixed to the rear arm I3 by a screw 26. It will be seen by this arrangement that, as the arms l3 and I4 are operated in raising or lowering the holder 9, the segment 24 will swing around the pivot I6 of the rear arm, with the lower pivot l5 always through the arc-shaped slot 25. By clamping this segment 24 between the front arm I4 and the bracket member Ila, both of the arms I3 and I4 may be held from swinging, and thus will maintain the holding engagement with the top of a piece of material supported in the trough part of the carriage. We prefer to provide for this by means of a stud 2'I threaded into the tapped axial hole in the pivot member I5; which stud is held rigidly in the hub part of a handle 28 by a pin 29. This handle is designed to extend upwardly and to incline slightly outwardly, in the most convenient position for grasping by the operator. In order that the desired position of the handle 28 'may be afforded when the clamp is drawn tight, we provide a collar or washer 3!! between the handle hub and the hub of the front arm I4. This washer has a reduced part 3| fitting into the outer end part of the bore of the arm hub, with flat key portions 32 at opposite sides of the stud 21, which fit into respective slots 33 in the portions of the end of the pivot member I5 at the 0pposite side of its axial tapped hole.

The key parts 32 and the slots 33 are so arranged that the pivot member I5 and the collar may slide relatively to each other in direction axially of these parts. In the periphery of the outer large portion of the collar or washer 30 is a stop screw 34; and in the inner side of the hub of the handle 28, in a portion that extends radially beyond the periphery of the collar or washer 39, is fixed a stop pin 35, extending backward so as to engage the stop screw 34 when the handle 28 has been rotated to a certain angular position relative to the collar or washer 30.

This arrangement permits the pivot member I5 to be rotated, before the set screw 23 has been tightened, and with it the collar or Washer 39, due to the engagement of the key parts 32 in the slots 33. By holding the handle 28 at the position it is desired it shall have when the clamp is entirely loose, and rotating the pivot member I5 and collar or washer 30 until the stop screw 34 engages with the stop pin 35, and then tightening the set screw 23 in the bracket member I Ia, the device may be set for the desired position of the handle 28 in its positions for unclamping and clamping the device. It will be seen that after this is done, the collar or washer 30 will be held rigidly stationary along with the pivot member I5; and the rotating and clamping engagement will be between the outer face of this collar or washer 30 and the inner face of the hub of the handle 28.

As the handle hub stud 21 is screwed back in the threaded hole in the pivot member I5, the washer or collar 30, permitted to slide along the stud 21 by the clearance of the key parts 32 in the slots 33, and pressed back by the handle hub, will press the front arm I4 back against the hub bracket member hub, and will hold the holder 9 very rigidly atany desired elevation as before mentioned. The engagement of the stop 35 with the stop screw 34 will limit the unclamping movement of the handle 28; and the clamping movement may be continued at the will of the operator to clamp the parts as tightly as may be desired. The handle 28 being located very close to the handle part of the front arm I4 which is grasped for raising or lowering the holder 9, is very conveniently reached; and as its maniplation consists only of a very simple rotative movement one way or the other, the setting and release of the clamp is very convenient, and permits very tight clamping with comparatively little care and exertion on the part of the operator.

In the example shown, the range of movement of the holder 9 is about ninety degrees, and the arcuate slot 25 of the segment 24 is of corresponding length; permitting this range of adjustment as the segment 24 travels along the pivot member I5 while pivoting on the upper :pivot member I6 of the inner arm I3 as before described. This latter pivot member, as here shown, is a simple stud, with a reduced threaded part IBa screwed into the upper hub of the bracket member Na, and a shoulder I6b engaging the front of this hub, and a convex head I60 holding the hub of the inner arm I3 to rotate on the larger part of the pivot member while held against end play thereon by the head I60. The clamping is all done on the outer arm I4; but as the two arms I3 and I4 are coupled together at both ends, this clampsboth of the arms I3 and I4, and the holder 9 which couples them, in the same posture, i. e., with the holder parallel with the carriage trough bottom part 1. Thus, all of the advantages of a rigid holding ratchet or like positive device without its limited number of adjustments, is attained, with much greater simplicity of construction and operation, and with less liability of derangement and greater durability than such more complicated devices.

We have rather specifically illustrated and described a certain preferred example of our invention, as is required, but we do not wish to be understood as being limited to such precise disclosure, but what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a combination with a clamp for clamping the material on the carriage of a slicing machine, said clamp comprising at least two relatively movable parts adjacent to each other, one of which carries material engaging means and a third part moving with one of said parts, an element connected to said third part and extending between said two parts, and means for causing said element to be gripped between said two parts during any one of a. number of relative positions of the two parts.

2. In combination with a clamp for clamping the material on the carriage of a slicing machine, said clampcomprising at least two parts adjacent to each other and pivoted together, one of which parts carries the material engaging means, and a third part moving with one of said parts, an element connected to said third part and having an arcuate portion to travel along adjacent the pivotal connection of the two parts, between said two parts, and means causing said element to be gripped between said two parts during any one of a number of relative adjustments of the two parts.

3. In combination with a clamp for clamping the material on the carriage of a slicing machine, said clamp comprising a pair of arms, a holder to which adjacent ends of the two arms are pivoted, a support to which other adjacent ends of the arms are pivoted, whereby the holder may be swung on the support to and from the material holding part of the carriage, an element connected to one of said arms and having an arcuate portion to travel along adjacent to one of the pivotal connections of the other arm, between said arm and the part to which it is pivoted, and means causing said element to be gflpp d between said arm and said part during any one of a number of relative adjustments of the arm and the part.

4. In combination with a clamp for clamping the material on the carriage of a slicing machine, said clamp comprising a pair of arms, a holder to which adjacent ends of the two arms are pivoted, a support to which other adjacent ends of the arms are pivoted, whereby the holder may be swung on the support to and from the carriage, an element connected to one of said arms and having an arcuate portion to travel along adjacent to the pivotal connection of the other one of said arms to the holder to which it is pivoted, and means causing said element to be gripped between said arm and said part during any one of a number of relative adjustments of the arm and the part.

5. In combination with a clamp for clamping the material on the carriage of a slicing machine, said clamp comprising two members, separately pivoted but connected together for uniform movement, and a material holder supported on at least one of said'members, means associated with the pivot of one of said members for frictionally clamping both members and the holder in any one of a number, of various positions, comprising a handle with a screw connection to the pivot, and an element comiected to the other member and frictionally held relative to said pivot upon manipulation of said screw connection by said handle.

6. In combination with a clamp for clamping the material on the carriage of a slicing machine, said clarnp comprising two members, separately pivoted but connected together for uniform movement, and a material holder supported on at least one of said members, means associated with the pivot of one of said members for frictionally clamping both members and the holder in any one of a number of various positions, comprising a handle with a screw connection to the pivot, and an element connected to the other member and frictionally held relative to said pivot upon manipulation of said screw connection by said handle, releasable means for holding the pivot stationary relative to the handle, an element movable axially of the pivot but held stationary or rotatable therewith, and stop means on this element and on the handle, engageable together to limit angular movement of said handle.

7. In combination with the carriage of a slicing machine and a holder to hold the material to a part of said carriage, means mounting said holder for movement on said carriage to and from said part, comprising a pivotal connection in which there is relative tuming of parts incident to said movement of the holder, said pivotal connection being made up of a pivot member fixed to one of said parts, and on which the other one of the parts turns, an element swung by another part of the mounting relative to the movement of the holder, said element being between said parts, a handle, and a screw connection between the handle and the pivot member, drawing the parts together to clamp said element between them upon turning 01 the handle.

8. In combination with the carriage of a slicing machine and a holder to hold the material to a part of said carriage, means mounting said holder for movement on said carriage to and from said part, comprising a pivotal connection in which there is relative turning of parts incident to said movement of the holder, said pivotal connection being made up of a pivot member fixed to one of said parts, and on which the other one of the parts turns, an element swung by another part of the mounting relative to the movement of the holder, said element being between said parts, a handle, and a screw connection between the handle and the pivot member, drawing the parts together to clamp said element between them upon turning of the handle, said screw connection comprising a stud, and a collar around said stud adjacent to said handle, having a connection with said pivot member whereby it will be turned or held stationary therewith but may move axially of the pivot member, said pivot member being releasable from its fixed connection to said one of the parts, to turn relatively thereto, and said collar and said handle having means mutually engageable to limit rotation of the handle relatively to the collar and pivot member.

9. In combination with the carriage of a slicing machine and a holder to hold material to a part of said carriage, arms pivoted to the holder and to the carriage, "supporting'the'holder for swinging on said carriage to and from said part of said carriage, an element connected to one of the arms to swing therewith and having a portion which swings past the pivotal connection of the other arm, and means to clamp this portion,

to hold the arms stationary and thereby hold the holder stationary at various distances of the standing part with a yoke member extended therefrom, and a part down onto which the material is to be clamped, a clamp comprising arms :pivoted on the carriage and pivoted'to said yoke member, supporting the holder for swinging up and down relatively to said part of the carriage,

an element connected to one of the arms and swinging therewith on the pivot thereof at said yoke member, said element having'an extension to swing along adjacent to the pivotal connection of theother arm to said yoke member, between said other arm and the yoke member, and means to releasably clamp said other arm, said element and said yoke together, whereby the holder may be held at various distances from said part of the carriage; I

11. In combination with two separately pivoted arms of a slicing machine holder clamp, a segment turning on the pivot of one of the arms and connected to said arm to swing therewith, said segment having an arcuate slot concentric with the pivot of the other arm to clamp said segment and thereby prevent turning of the arms on their pivots, or:to be released to allow said turning of said arms. 1

12. In combination with two separately piv- =oted arms of a slicing machine holder clamp, a

segment turning on the pivot of one of the arms and connected to said arm to swing therewith, said segment having an arcuateslot concentric with the pivot of the'other arm to clamp said segment and thereby prevent turning of the arms on their pivots, "or tob'e released to allow said turning of said arms, said clamping means comprising a handle and a threaded connection between the handle and the pivot with which it is associated.

13. In combination with two separately pivoted arms of a slicing machine holder clamp, a segment turning on the pivot of one of the arms connected to said arm to swing therewith, said segment having an arcuate slot concentric with said pivot of the other arm to clamp said segslidably connected with the other arm, and means ing of said arms, said clamping means comprising a handle and a threaded connection between the handle and the pivot with which it is associated, 5 means for fixing said pivot at different angular positions, and stop means connected to the handle and to the pivot for mutual engagement to limit the degree of turning of the handle and the screw connection.

14. In combination with two separately pivoted arms of a slicing machine clamp, a segment turning on the pivot of one of the arms and connected to said arm to swing therewith, said segment having an arcuate slot concentric with said pivot and receiving the pivot of the other arm, and clamping means associated with said pivot of the other arm to clamp said segment and thereby prevent turning of the arms on'their pivots, or to be released to allow said turning of said arms, said clamping means comprising a handle and a threaded connection between the handle and the pivot with which it is associated, means for fixing said pivot at different angular positions, and stop means connected to the handle and to the pivot for mutual engagement to limit the degree of turning of the handle and the screw connection,

the stop means connected to the pivot being capable of movementaxially of the pivot.

15. In a meat clamp, the combination of a 3 meat engaging member, arms pivotally secured to the meat engaging member, a support for the arms; said arms pivotally secured thereto, said pivots arranged so as to cause the arms to move in parallel arrangement, and means for looking said structure against movement comprising a member secured to and movable with one of said arms, and slidably connected with the other arm, and means for clamping said slidable connection against movement, on said other arm.

16. In a meat clamp, the combination of a meat engaging member, arms pivotally secured to the meat engaging member, a support for the arms, said arms pivotally secured thereto, said pivots arranged so as to cause the meat engaging member to move through positions parallel to each other, and means for locking said structure against movement comprising a member secured to and movable with one of said arms, and

for clamping said slidable connection against movement, on said other arm.

GEORGE A. LENSKY.

ELMER G. STRECKFUSS. 

